Attempting to portray the mindset of a spy is inherently difficult; understanding the perspective of a novelist who was previously a spy and now chronicles that mysterious occupation seems almost unattainable. This profile of former MI5 and MI6 agent David Cornwell, more widely recognized by his author name, John le Carré (1931-2020), encounters this very obstacle. Drawing from the author’s memoir with the same title…

It’s remarkable that "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," written by David Cromwell—also known as John Le Carré—sold somewhere between 12 and 15 million copies in physical form. That was before Richard Burton portrayed “Lemeas” from that novel, and well before Sir Alec Guinness played the meticulous spy "George Smiley" in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy," which really highlights the extraordinary success of this author, w…